Category: Healthy Weight Loss

People who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don’t use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, according to a study in the journal Obesity.

“We found that prevalence of overweight was significantly higher in MSG users than in non-users,” He said. “We saw this risk even when we controlled for physical activity, total calorie intake and other possible explanations for the difference in body mass. The positive associations between MSG intake and overweight were consistent with data from animal studies.”

As the percentage of overweight and obese people around the world continues to increase, He said, finding clues to the cause could be very important.

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other health organizations around the world have concluded that MSG is safe,” He said, “but the question remains – is it healthy?”

“Sustainability” is the current favorite buzz word of the environmental movement. But what if you applied the concept of sustainability to your weight-loss and health-improvement efforts?

The results would be life altering, says Joe Dillon. And Joe should know. He has coached 22 Olympic Gold Medal Winning athletes. Since 1979, Joe has coached literally thousands of one-on-one clients from athletes to doctors to CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies. An inspirational speaker, Joe has spoken to millions of people including national sales meetings, all the major dental meetings, medical schools and was Speaker of the Year for Vistage, the world’s largest organization of CEO’s. Born in 1944, Joe is 7 percent body fat with a resting heart rate of 40. Dillon clearly walks his talk.

“Health and fitness are attainable at any age, no matter how busy you are,” says Sandy Terrien, Dillon’s business partner and a nationally recognized speaker and certified personal trainer and fitness consultant. Born in 1957, Sandy is 10 percent body fat with a resting heart rate of 42.

“Improving our health – and in direct correlation, our lives – is a prime objective for many of us,” Dillon says. “Occasional diets and sporadic exercise, fads or ignoring the problem, won’t get the job done. What’s needed is a fully-aware, whole-life approach.”

If you’re considering taking steps to alter your health and change your life, evaluate any fitness plan on the following points, Dillon advises:

Sustainability

“There’s no quick fix,” Dillon says. Optimal health is a way of life. “We live and teach a practical, sustainable lifestyle. Our program works at home, at the office, on business trips and even on vacations.” Joe travels over 300,000 miles a year. Whatever you do counts. “Our program is about progress, not perfection,” says Joe. “It has to work for you and in your life.”

Safety

“Our number one rule is: ‘First do no harm,’ ” Dillon notes. “Our program is safe and optimal for pregnant women, lactating women, new born infants, as well as both type 1 and type 2 diabetics. “

Scientific

Is your new plan based on consensus science and the most current research available? Programs like The Joe Dillon Difference, that are based on empirical research and proven science, provide maximum opportunity for success and also allow flexibility to evolve as new information becomes available. Apply empirical principles to your own progress, as well self measurement, annual blood tests and physicals to measure and substantiate your results. “Listen to your body is what we teach,” says Dillon. “We encourage you to pay attention to the feedback your body gives you and we teach you how to tailor our program to exactly meet your body’s needs – all based on empirical scientific evidence.”

Simplicity

“We all have busy lives,” Terrien says. “We believe a healthy lifestyle should be simple and practical enough to work in the real world.” Complicated systems and unrealistic goals make it harder to achieve life-changing results. “We will teach you 4 simple principles that are safe, scientific, effective, and life changing.”

Self-Responsibility

“There is only one person who cares about your health. You. If you don’t care, no one cares,” Dillon says. “Your health is your choice. Actions, like the food you put in your mouth, have consequences. All change is internal. We will teach you how to transform your life. And always remember: You are worth it”

The first step to weight loss is setting a realistic goal. By using a BMI chart and consulting with your health-care provider, you can determine what is a healthy weight for you.

Studies show that you can improve your health with just a small amount of weight loss. “We know that physical activity in combination with reduced calorie consumption can lead to the 5 to 10 percent weight loss necessary to achieve remission of the obesity-associated complications,” says William Dietz, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity at the CDC. “Even these moderate weight losses can improve blood pressure and help control diabetes and high cholesterol in obese or overweight adults.”

To reach your goal safely, plan to lose weight gradually. A weight loss of one-half to 2 pounds a week is usually safe, according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This can be achieved by decreasing the calories eaten or increasing the calories used by 250 to 1,000 calories per day, depending on current calorie intake. (Some people with serious health problems due to obesity may lose weight more rapidly under a doctor’s supervision.) If you plan to lose more than 15 to 20 pounds, have any health problems, or take medication on a regular basis, a doctor should evaluate you before you begin a weight-loss program.

Each year, we learn more about the tremendous health benefits of staying physically active and being properly nourished throughout our lives. The work of scientists, health professionals, and older adult volunteers has greatly increased our knowledge about the aging process and how we can maintain strength, dignity, and independence as we age.

Essential to staying strong and vital during older adulthood is participation in regular strengthening exercises which help to prevent osteoporosis and frailty by stimulating the growth of muscle and bone.

Feeling physically strong also promotes mental and emotional health. Strength training exercises are easy to learn, and have been proven safe and effective through years of thorough research.

Experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Tufts University, with the help of older adults, have created this book, Growing Stronger: Strength Training for Older Adults to help you become stronger and maintain your health and independence. I encourage you to read it carefully and begin using this strength training program as soon as possible. It can make a profound difference in your physical, mental, and emotional health.

Let us aim, as a nation, to Grow Stronger together. To your health—

David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Center for Primary Care
Morehouse School of Medicine
United States Surgeon General, 1998-2002

Tags: strengthening exercises, Strength training exercises

A popular weight-loss myth is that everyone who loses weight eventually gains it back, says Rena Wing, Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry at Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I. Wing, the co-developer of a research study known as the National Weight Control Registry, has worked to deflate this myth.

Tucked away in the registry’s database is information about the weight-control behaviors of more than 3,000 American adults who have lost an average of 60 pounds and have kept it off for an average of six years.

How do they do it?

These successful losers report four common behaviors, says Wing. They eat a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet, they monitor themselves by weighing in frequently, they are very physically active, and they eat breakfast. Eating breakfast every day is contrary to the typical pattern for the average overweight person who is trying to diet, says Wing. “They get up in the morning and say ‘I’m going to start my diet today,’ and they eat little or no breakfast and a light lunch. Then they get hungry and consume most of their calories late in the day. Successful weight losers have managed to change this pattern.”

Six years after their weight loss, most of the registry’s successful losers still report eating a low-calorie, low-fat diet, with about 24 percent of calories from fat. (The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend no more than 30 percent of daily calories from fat.) They also exercise for about an hour or more a day, expending about 2,800 calories per week on a variety of activities. This is equivalent to walking 28 miles a week, or four miles a day, says Wing.

Wing also reports that more than 70 percent of the registry’s weight losers became overweight before age 18.

Although Barbara Croft of Columbus, Ohio, was not an overweight child, she gained weight once she left home and started cooking for herself. Replacing the plain and simple meals she had as a child with pizza, sodas, and meat and vegetables laden with sauces, the 5-foot-5-inch Croft worked her way up to 350 pounds. “I always ate from all the food groups–I just ate huge portions and I ate in between meals,” says Croft.

When she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in February 1999, Croft got scared. “I worried about the health consequences–about going blind. I already have a little numbness in my feet.”

Croft went on a diet and lost 200 pounds in 19 months. She has kept it off for a year and a half. “This is the third time I’ve lost over 100 pounds,” says the 52-year-old, 150-pound Croft, “but this is the longest I’ve been able to keep the weight off.” In her two previous weight losses, Croft ate nutritious meals, but didn’t exercise. This time, she started walking for exercise, but could only walk about a block at first. “My husband went with me because he was afraid I wouldn’t make it,” she says. Now, Croft walks on a treadmill for 50 minutes a day–25 minutes each morning and night.

She still eats balanced meals, but restricts her portions. And she always eats breakfast. “I have Egg Beaters, two pieces of low-calorie bread, fruit, decaf coffee, and 8 ounces of water.” Croft dines out almost every night, typically eating half her dinner of grilled chicken or salmon and a vegetable or salad. She sends the other half back, so she isn’t tempted to overeat.

“Losing the weight was easy–maintaining it is much harder,” says Croft.

Croft had tried commercial weight-loss programs in the past, but this last time she did it on her own. “You have to find out what works for you,” she says. “If I eat butter or cheese, that seems to do me in. Beef is also a problem.”

Croft’s diabetes is under control now without medication. And she says her knees don’t hurt anymore, she can buy clothes in a regular store, and she started traveling again now that she can fit into an airplane seat.

Americans are getting fatter. We’re putting on the pounds at an alarmingly rapid rate. And we’re sacrificing our health for the sake of supersize portions, biggie drinks, and two-for-one value meals, obesity researchers say.

More than 60 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the number of overweight people has been slowly climbing since the 1980s, the number of obese adults has nearly doubled since then.

No Laughing Matter
Excess weight and physical inactivity account for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year in the United States, second only to deaths related to smoking, says the CDC. People who are overweight or obese are more likely to develop heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, gallbladder disease, and joint pain caused by excess uric acid (gout). Excess weight can also cause interrupted breathing during sleep (sleep apnea) and wearing away of the joints (osteoarthritis).

Carrying extra weight means carrying an extra risk for certain types of cancer. “[Our] researchers have concluded that obesity increases the risk for many of the most common cancers worldwide, and perhaps cancer in general,” says Melanie Polk, R.D., director of nutrition education at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), a nonprofit research and education organization in Washington, D.C.

In their review of more than 100 studies and international reports on obesity and cancer risk, completed in October 2001, researchers at the AICR concluded that obesity is consistently linked to post-menopausal breast cancer, colon cancer, endometrial cancer, prostate cancer, and kidney cancer.

To address the public health epidemic of being overweight or obese, former Surgeon General David Satcher issued a “call to action” in December 2001. The Surgeon General’s Call To Action To Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity outlined strategies that communities can use in helping to address the problems. Those options included requiring physical education at all school grades, providing more healthy food options on school campuses, and providing safe and accessible recreational facilities for residents of all ages.

Are You Overweight?
Overweight refers to an excess of body weight, but not necessarily body fat. Obesity means an excessively high proportion of body fat. Health professionals use a measurement called body mass index (BMI) to classify an adult’s weight as healthy, overweight, or obese (see the BMI chart, “Are You at a Healthy Weight?”). BMI describes body weight relative to height and is correlated with total body fat content in most adults.

To get your approximate BMI, multiply your weight in pounds by 703, then divide the result by your height in inches, and divide that result by your height in inches a second time. (Or you can use the interactive BMI calculator at www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/bmicalc.htm.)

A BMI from 18.5 up to 25 is considered in the healthy range, from 25 up to 30 is overweight, and 30 or higher is obese. Generally, the higher a person’s BMI, the greater the risk for health problems, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). However, there are some exceptions. For example, very muscular people, like body builders, may have a BMI greater than 25 or even 30, but this reflects increased muscle rather than fat. “It is excess body fat that leads to the health problems such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol,” says Eric Colman, M.D., of the Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Metabolic and Endocrine Drug Products.

In addition to a high BMI, having excess abdominal body fat is a health risk. Men with a waist of more than 40 inches around and women with a waist of 35 inches or more are at risk for health problems.

Obesity, once thought by many to be a moral failing, is now often classified as a disease. The NHLBI calls it a complex chronic disease involving social, behavioral, cultural, physiological, metabolic, and genetic factors. Although experts may have different theories on how and why people become overweight, they generally agree that the key to losing weight is a simple message: Eat less and move more. Your body needs to burn more calories than you take in.

LEXINGTON, Ky., Aug. 27 (UPI) — A U.S. study found that one in four obese people in an intensive weight loss program for 12 weeks can go on to lose more than 100 pounds.

Dr. James Anderson, head of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Metabolic Research Group, led a nine-year study of patients who have lost 100 or more pounds via limited calorie intake — 1,000 to 1,200 calories daily — and increased physical activity such as with walking. The average weight loss was 134 pounds in 44 weeks.

The weight loss was accompanied by improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol levels, diabetes, sleep apnea — 66 percent of the participants on medications for high blood lipids, high blood pressure, diabetes or degenerative joint disease were able to discontinue those medications.

“Many severely obese persons, needing to lose more than 100 pounds, become frustrated and turn to surgery,” Anderson said in a statement. “This program has much lower risks than surgery and can lead to similar long-term weight loss.”

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.

SALISBURY, Md., Aug. 27 (UPI) — U.S. researchers found the benefits of exercise for weight loss could be increased by using rapid — or explosive — muscle contractions.

Scott Mazzetti, of Salisbury University in Maryland and researchers from Anderson and Ball State universities, compared the effects of explosive verses slow contractions on energy expenditure and thus, weight loss.

The study, published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, found explosive concentric muscle contractions as the key to weight loss because the explosive muscle contractions used more energy than slow contractions — even if the amount of weight lifted was identical.

The study also found that explosive contractions were more effective in increasing energy expenditure when using moderate weight loads instead of heavy loads.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved

How would you rate your metabolism? Can you eat loads of chocolate, ice cream and junk food before bedtime and never gain a pound? Or, are you one of those less fortunate individuals who eat a single M&M in the evening and start packing on the fat? This can certainly be a discouraging situation. Folks with slow metabolisms have a hard time keeping the weight off. Some of this is genetics and some of it concerns your daily activities. Are you active each and every day? I know I am and have been since I was like three years old. My older brother is the opposite and he has been battling his weight since high school. This always saddened me. However, I simply can’t get him to exercise. Nor can I get him to consume metabolism boosting foods. However, these things would help significantly.

Are you in need of some metabolism boosting foods? Hey, don’t fret or get down on yourself; many individuals are the same way. I can never advocate enough how crucial diet and exercise are if you want to stay in shape and remain healthy. Along with metabolism boosting foods, a good fitness regime will work wonders on your physique. All you need to get started is a little motivation. I know exactly where you can find it. If you’re a girl, simply snatch this month’s issue of “Self” magazine off the shelf at the local grocery store. After taking one glance at the girl on the cover, you should be well on your way. This always works with my wife anyway. As for all you men out there, take a gander at the latest “Men’s Health” magazine. The dudes you will see in there may put your physique to shame, but they may also get you stoked and ready for a decent cardio and weight training routine. The truth is that exercise, metabolism boosting foods, and an overall proper diet are addictive. Just give it a shot for a couple weeks. Not only will you see a difference in your figure, but you will feel a ton better.

Need some great ideas for healthy metabolism boosting foods? No problem! When you have the World at your fingertips, it is a synch to find exercise routines, diet plans and metabolism boosting foods. The best part is that it’s free. Hey, we all want to get things for free, right? Well, this is your big chance. Get online and get started now. Your body will surely thank you.

Tags: metabolism boosting foods

This is False. “There are no ‘magic’ hours,” says Bender. “We associate late night eating with weight gain because we usually consume more calories at night. We do this because we usually deprive our bodies of adequate calories the first half of the day. Start the day out with breakfast and eat every 3-4 hours. Keep lunch the same size as dinner, and you will be less likely to over-indulge at night, yet you can enjoy a small late night snack without the fear of it sticking to your middle,” explains Bender.

Tags: weight gain

This myth is False. A calorie, is a calorie. Although oatmeal is healthy, if you have 4 cups of oatmeal, the calories add up. “Healthy or otherwise, you still must be aware of portion sizes,” says Julie Bender, a dietitian with Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. “You must limit your caloric intake in order to lose weight, however, understanding how to ‘balance’ calorie intake throughout your day can help you avoid feelings of deprivation, hunger and despair,” she added.

Tags: caloric intake, lose weight

Fat is bad for you, no matter what kind. False. Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of “good fats” out there that are essential to promoting good health and aid in disease prevention. “They are the ones that occur naturally in foods like avocados, nuts, and fish, as opposed to those that are manufactured,” says Bender, a dietitian with Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. “Including small amounts of these foods at meal times can help you to feel full longer and therefore eat less.”

Tags: good fats, eat less

This is False. “Most women’s bodies do not produce nearly enough testosterone to become ‘bulky’ like those body builders on TV,” says Phil Tyne, director of the Baylor Tom Landry Health and Wellness Center. If you do find yourself getting bigger then you would like simply use less weight and higher repetitions.

Ideal for the home gym for fitness enthusiasts of any skill level, the Schwinn 430 Elliptical Trainer provides an effective cardiovascular workout by combining upper and lower body flexibility and coordination into one impact-free motion. Elliptical trainers emulate the natural motion of your foot while supporting your heel throughout the stride, making them much easier on your knees and joints. In addition to feeling more natural while working out, regular use on elliptical trainers will increase heart and lung capacity while improving your health (and burning calories at the same time).

Need another reason to stick to an exercise program? A recent study by medical researchers associates male sexual impotence (erectile dysfunction) with the very same risk factors most associated with heart disease and diabetes - lack of exercise and poor diet. Erectile Dysfunction and Lifestyle.